Demographics

'The New Red Book' is a call to appreciate Houston as a bastion of Black heritage

A new book serves as a long overdue field guide to Black history in Houston, one that hearkens back to a century-old catalog of the city’s African American community. In “The New Red Book,” author Lindsay Gary takes readers to 50 sites, telling the stories about these important spaces and the people whose legacies remain relevant today.

Houston Community Data Connections

An interactive data platform, this initiative seeks to facilitate the practical use of data by city and community leaders for decision-making and capacity building in Houston's communities.

Where Houstonians stand on education, CRT, abortion rights, and voter access in 2022

If you built a political platform based on what most Houstonians would agree with, what would it look like? We have one version of a “Houston agenda”, thanks to the 2022 Kinder Houston Area Survey. While divisions persist, big shares of Houstonians across party lines agree on several big issues.

Kinder Houston Area Survey: 2022 Results

The 41st Kinder Houston Area Survey shares Houstonians’ views on the economy, crime, the pandemic and other issues related to the city’s demographic transformations.

In the 2022 Houston Area Survey, residents reassess their prospects

Houstonians are looking slightly less optimistic than they normally do, and the economy is their main concern—more than crime, pandemics, traffic, flooding, and other recent plagues. In fact, optimism is at its lowest level in the history of the Kinder Houston Area Survey, driven largely by the rising cost of living. This cloudy outlook also comes with a dose of clarity about the lingering effects of racism and even stronger agreement on the need to support public education.

Kinder Institute Lunch-Out 2020

Stephen Klineberg presents the findings from the 39th Kinder Houston Area Survey. The event also honors Rev. William A. Lawson with the 2020 Stephen L. Klineberg Award for more than 60 years of service to Houston and its people.

Urban Reads: Stephen L. Klineberg

Kinder Institute Founding Director Stephen Klineberg talks with Director Bill Fulton about his new book, which tracks the progress of Houston during almost four decades of remarkable economic, demographic and technological change.

The Urban Sun Belt: Setting The Agenda

This webinar explores findings from a report from the Kinder Institute on the urban Sun Belt – covering such topics as demographic change, the economy, housing, and sprawl. A panel discussion follows the presentation

Kinder Institute Lunch-Out 2021

The Kinder Institute held its 2021 annual luncheon on Tuesday, May 11 as a virtual Lunch-Out. Guests from Houston and around the world gathered online to hear Stephen Klineberg and other institute leaders share the findings from the 40th Kinder Houston Area Survey, and discuss key aspects of the institute’s transformative efforts in response to the challenges of the pandemic.

Kinder Institute Luncheon 2022

After two years of virtual events, the 2022 Kinder Institute Luncheon will once again be one of Houston’s most insightful gatherings of business and community leaders!

Houston, Dallas led metro area growth in 2021 even as their urban cores lost population

Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth were again among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country last year, according to new statistics released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

After 20 years, the center of Harris County's population has moved outside the Loop

In 20 years, the population center of Harris County moved 2 miles, taking it from the heart of the historic Heights area and outside the Loop for the first time. It’s yet another sign of the suburban surge underway in the Houston area.

What Seattle and Boise got right about Hispanic representation in city politics

Houston, Boise, and Seattle share a strong-mayor form of government, and its voters tend to favor progressive-leaning candidates. But these two majority-White cities have lifted Hispanic candidates into office in recent years, while representation has dwindled in Houston.

In 2011, Houston created a district to boost Hispanic council representation. What happened?

In November 1979, Houston City Council went from being almost exclusively male and white to being dramatically more diverse, literally overnight, as voters elected the council’s first two women and its first Mexican-American, and tripled the representation of African-Americans. The new council was also on average 10 years younger. It was a new day in city politics—thanks to federally required reforms that led to single-member districting—and Houston never looked back.

How Dallas-Fort Worth is poised to dominate America’s heartland

There’s an adage in Texas about a braggart being someone who’s “all hat and no cattle.” But you can’t say that about “Big D,” rapidly emerging as the de facto capital of the American Heartland.